Well, it took nearly 243 years but what is now known as Buffalo Trace Distillery, a distillery that’s already a National Historic Landmark has reached a new milestone, its 1,000,000th distillery visitor. To be fair, the distillery has only been keeping track of visitors since it first opened for tours in 1999. I guess you could say it only took 17 years to reach this impressive milestone.
How Long Ago Was That?
Q: What else happened in 1773?
A: In this same year, a little skirmish took place in Boston. It was the year that a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised themselves and boarded three British tea ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. It was a little thing called The Boston Tea Party! Maybe we should dump some Bourbon in the Kentucky River to protest the Federal Excise Tax – FET on distilled spirits.
The 1 Millionth Visitor
Ryan (wearing the hat) was the 1 Millionth visitor. I wonder what he’ll be drinking tonight?
Photo courtesy of Buffalo Trace Distillery.
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They recently began actively counting down the visitors in anticipation of reaching the one millionth milestone. Some careful calculations led the team to narrow down which week they would likely host the one millionth visitor, and with some planning, the team was able to organize a festive day for everyone.
Around 11 a.m. today, August 31, 2016 the unsuspecting visitor, from Lexington, Kentucky was greeted by Buffalo Trace team members who gathered in the distilleries visitor center to welcome the lucky person with cheers, a balloon drop and a special prize pack.
Number of Visitors Has More Than Doubled in Last 5 Years
As the bourbon boom has grown, so has the visitor traffic to Buffalo Trace Distillery. Though it took 17 years to reach this milestone the actual traffic to the distillery has more than doubled in just the past five years. In the last year alone, visitation at Buffalo Trace Distillery increased by more than 23 percent. Like many distilleries in Kentucky, they have welcomed visitors from all 50 states as well as more than 25 other countries.
With this milestone reached, and with prospects for visitation not slowing anytime soon, Buffalo Trace will count onward to its two millionth visitor.
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